Judge defends handling of license inquiry

In the "Pluses and Minuses" editorial on Sept. 7 and in the article published the preceding day regarding Mr. Snedden and a marriage he performed in June, you are off the mark. Your statement that "... the judge... jumped to conclusions" is simply wrong and it is disappointing to me that the article in Friday's print edition was not corrected. The error was then again repeated on Saturday.

I wrote Mr. Snedden a letter on Aug. 29 in which I respectfully requested that he provide the court with his credentials from the Ohio Secretary of State documenting that he could perform marriage ceremonies. I enclosed a copy of the relevant statute. At no time did I express to him that he had performed an illegal marriage. At no time did I state to him that I had concluded he was not licensed.

Why did I write "the demand letter" authorized by Revised Code 3101.10? The prosecutor requested that I do so. The prosecutor also stated to me that they had run a check with the Ohio Secretary of State and there was no record of James Snedden or Jim Snedden being a licensed minister in Ohio.

My staff did run a similar check with the Ohio Secretary of State to corroborate the prosecutor's findings. My staff found that no James Snedden or Jim Snedden was licensed to marry in Ohio.

Today is Saturday, Sept. 7. I ran computer checks through the Ohio Secretary of State's website. I ran Jim Snedden, James Snedden and included St. Louisville and Universal Life Church. The result: "no data found"!

If the information on the Secretary of State's website is wrong, how does one further clarify the issue? By asking the minister to send his credentials to the court as specifically authorized by state statute and that is exactly what I did.

I do not know Mr. Snedden. To the best of my knowledge, I have never met Mr. Snedden. I was unaware of the fact that he had a "blog" until the prosecutor wrote that they saw evidence of his marrying a couple on his "blog." I had no knowledge that he had been critical of the county prosecutor.

Notwithstanding the above, it is suggested that I am somehow harassing Mr. Snedden and am in cahoots with the prosecutor in retaliating against him and that I have failed to do my job as probate judge. The facts of this matter do not justify any such conclusions.

Mr. Snedden's letter is not the first demand letter I have sent out and it will not be the last. When the Ohio Secretary of State's records do not reflect that a minister is licensed, we will request that the officiant provide documentation that he or she is licensed, just as I did in Mr. Snedden's case.

Currently in our county, we have eight "married" couples who were married by an individual who is not a licensed minister. Those couples have the right to know of this defect.

Judge Robert H. Hoover

Newark

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Judge defends handling of license inquiry

In the 'Pluses and Minuses' editorial on Sept. 7 and in the article published the preceding day regarding Mr. Snedden and a marriage he performed in June, you are off the mark. Your statement that '..